A mobile terminal having an input device that allows various types of tactile user inputs is provided.
A mobile terminal is a device that can be carried around and has one or more functions such as voice and video call communication, inputting and outputting information, storing data, and the like.
As such functions become more diversified, the mobile terminal can support more complicated functions such as capturing images or video, reproducing music or video files, playing games, receiving broadcast signals, and the like. By comprehensively and collectively implementing such functions, the mobile terminal may be embodied in the form of a multimedia player or device.
In order to implement various functions of such multimedia players or devices, the multimedia player requires sufficient support in terms of hardware or software, for which numerous attempts are being made and implemented. For example, a user interface allowing users to easily and conveniently search for and select one or more functions is being developed.
Also, as users consider their mobile terminal to be a personal portable device that may express their personality, mobile terminals with desirable portability and various designs are being developed. For example, the mobile terminal employs a touch screen to make its front surface appear simple and minimize degradation due to user manipulation after prolonged use.
However, upon repeated user manipulation or when a particular function is immediately executed only via the touch screen, the advantages of user input via key manipulation cannot be supported, so a configuration that combines a touch screen and a key input scheme has been proposed. Nevertheless, the key input scheme of a push button still has some drawbacks in that the user interface appears to be too complicated.